HONG KONG – People in Hong Kong returned to their work and bus, metro, and ferry operators gradually resumed their services after the Hong Kong Observatory downgraded the No 8 typhoon signal to No 3 at 10:20 am on Thursday.

After 11 hours during which the typhoon No 8 signal – the third highest typhoon warning – was in effect, Tropical Storm Toraji moved further away from the city and local winds moderated after coming within 130 kilometers of the city.

The T3 alert – meaning local winds are expected to moderate gradually but local winds remain generally strong with occasional gale force winds at offshore areas and on high ground – will remain in force for most of the day on Thursday, the observatory said in an 11:45 am bulletin.

Schools and many businesses in the city remained shut on Thursday morning as the city dwellers woke up to rain brought by the storm.

IN PICTURES: Back to normal

Classes of kindergartens, including PM classes of kindergartens, schools for children with physical disability and schools for children with intellectual disability, AM and whole-day primary and secondary schools have been suspended for the day, according to the Education Bureau.

However, “classes of PM primary and secondary schools and classes of evening schools will resume today (Thursday),” added an EDB notification.

For the first time during a typhoon, the city's stock market remained open for trading on Thursday morning under a new mechanism introduced on Sept 23 to allow trading amid typhoons and torrential rains.

The Home Affairs Department opened 27 temporary shelters across the city where 120 people sought refuge, according to the government.

As at 10 am on Thursday, the authorities received 13 reports of fallen trees. However, there were no reports of landslides or flooding.

During the typhoon, a woman was injured. She later received treatment at the Accident and Emergency Department of a public hospital, the Hospital Authority said.

With officials and business activities resuming shortly after the downgrading of the T8 signal, people rushed out to go to their workplaces.

Bus and other transport services started to resume gradually. Star ferry services between Tsim Sha Tsui and Central and Wan Chai resumed at noon, while those serving between Discovery Bay and Central operated normally since 10:40 am.

The MTR Corp said it has been gradually increasing train frequencies to accommodate the growing number of passengers. Bus and ferry services, as well as transportation links between border checkpoints, are returning to normal. The city’s high-speed railway service has not been affected by Toraji, according to MTR Corp.

Caroline Wong, a 26-year-old who regularly commutes between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, said she arrived at her office two hours later than usual due to Toraji. She reached Shenzhen’s Luohu Port at around 10 am and experienced a slightly longer wait than usual for the East Rail Line due to delays to the train service. Wong said she had seen large crowds of passengers at Admiralty MTR station.

Evie Xue Jingyuan, a student at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, left her home to travel to the campus an hour after the signal was downgraded to No 3. Xue said more people than usual were traveling from Mong Kok to Hung Hom on the MTR this morning, but this did not have a significant impact on her travel time.

Ada Cheng Hiu-ching said she spent the morning at her home in Sha Tin, and that no one she knew had been seriously affected by the typhoon. She said that her company required employees to return to work after lunch, which she thought was reasonable. Cheng added that the traffic was not very heavy on her way to work in the afternoon, 

The Airport Authority said operations and flights were running normally.

Various government services, including the Hospital Authority, the Judiciary, and care centers, resumed their service gradually within two hours after the cancellation of the T8 alert.

Expected to moderate gradually, local winds remain generally strong at first with occasional gale force winds at offshore areas and on high ground, said the HKO.

Warning that seas are rough with swells, it advised people to stay away from the shoreline and not to engage in water sports.

“When the threat posed to Hong Kong by Toraji is further reduced, the Observatory will issue the Standby Signal, No. 1 or cancel all tropical cyclone warning signals,” reads the HKO bulletin.

Earlier, after issuing the Standby Signal, No 1 at 10:20 pm on Monday, the HKO upgraded it to T3 on Wednesday afternoon.

Toraji, which means a beautiful flower that blooms unnoticed, usually in the deep mountains of Korea, is one of four storms that have emerged at the same time in the western North Pacific and the South China Sea this month.

Contact the writer at stephyzhang@chinadailyhk.com

With Reuters inputs